• February Musings •

 Hello, faithful blog readers!  I hope you all are doing well, and are enjoying this roller coaster of a year so far!  Time seems to pass by faster and faster with each month and year that goes by.  Every year or so I poke my head out and let you know what quirky new things our family is up to.  

I actually drafted this post in December, so a few edits were already necessary!  It’s been a whirlwind start to the year, but there are really great things in store for our family, and I’m excited to share!  If you’re not in the mood for my ramblings on non-toxic household stuff, you can scroll down towards the end of the post for some sewing updates ;)

So, what have we been up to?  Continuing our journey towards living healthier, both in food as well as our home.  Every time you feel like you’ve plateaued a bit, you discover some new earth-shattering revelation.  It’s quite the change to take on new habits and the like, but it really wouldn’t be an adjustment at all if we were all eating and living the way God intended!  No one was meant to wear plastic, eat chemicals, smear their body with hormone-altering fragrances and such.  But many of these products offer irreplaceable “convenience” that in turn demands somewhat of a sacrifice if you are to make the change.  But again, we weren’t meant to “nuke” our food and have it hot ‘n’ ready in 30 seconds.  We weren’t meant to be able to store perishable items for years on end.  With those “conveniences” comes great sacrifice to our health, a much greater sacrifice than that of forgoing said conveniences.  

All that to say, we’ve made a fair number of discoveries since my last “health nut” post.  I’ll share some of them here, and a few links for those of you that are interested, in no particular order.  (Amazon and Azure links are affiliate links).

One of the biggest changes, which we have not even been able to enjoy yet due to it being on back order - is a grain mill!  I enjoy listening to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast, and recently Lisa interviewed Sue Becker, a food scientist who is an expert on all things flour vs. whole grains.  My mind was blown after hearing what she had to say, and we immediately ordered a grain mill.  I had no idea of the benefits of fresh whole grain over commercial flour - even organic types, such as what we use.  Do give that episode a listen, I know you’ll find it very interesting!  We ordered a Mock Mill, and I have been utterly thrilled with it.  It is so easy to use, and transitioning to baking and cooking exclusively with whole grains has been quite seamless, thanks to this amazing machine!  

My sweet husband got me a beautiful forest green Ankarsrum stand mixer for Christmas, and I am *in love*.  It is a beast, but a gorgeous one, and I've been having a blast breaking it in with all sorts of delicious treats.  I've been accustomed to kneading all my breads by hand, so this lovely little machine feels like absolute luxury!   

Liquid hand soap - this stuff smells amazing, goes far, and is a clean product!  

White Rose Linen feminine products.  I made the switch a few months ago from organic cotton to these, and have seen a huge improvement in flow, etc.  They’re very soft and pretty, as an added bonus!  

Even if you’re not ready to make the move for cloth, *please* make the switch to organic cotton!  Both myself and another family member made the switch from standard products to organic cotton, and immediately saw results.  I had terribly heavy periods ever since having our second child, but switching to organic cotton products brought it back to a more normal flow at long last.  I’ll link the standard pads, overnight pads and tampons that I found worked well. 

Standard pads

Overnight pads

Tampons

Icebreaker Siren Merino Bra.  I’ve had these for months and couldn’t be any happier.  They’re mostly merino with a pinch of nylon and spandex, so they fit great but also stay fresh for so long.  Wool is the bomb!!

Azure Standard organic foods!  If you haven’t heard of Azure, it is a co-op, with no cost or strings attached to signing up.  You simply pick a drop location near you, purchase items, and they are delivered on a semi to your drop location on a specific day each month.  If you’re lucky like us, your drop coordinator will hold your items til you can conveniently pick them up, so you don’t have to meet the truck.  We have been thrilled with the Azure products we’ve ordered so far - flour (and now we’ll be ordering wheat berries), einkorn pasta, raw milk cheese, vanilla, fresh produce, cocoa powder, etc.  Do check them out!  Most items are a competitive price with your average grocery store organic items, some are lower, some are slightly higher.  But it averages out to be as cheap as the store, and it’s so convenient to be able to pick everything up at once. 

Hello Bello diapers - I haven’t decided yet between them and the brand linked below.  Both perform well.  

Pura diapers - way softer than Hello Bello, and very absorbent as well!  

Klean Kanteen sippy bottle - these are free of any heavy metals/toxic substances per a Mamavation study.  Our kids have had them for just shy of a year and they’re holding up beautifully, despite being dropped…. a lot.  

Enjoy Life chocolate chips - who knew that chocolate chips didn’t need soy lecithin (hello, hormone disrupters) and other additives!  Three ingredients.  Count me in! 

Truly Free laundry soap - smells amazing but non toxic.  

Grove toilet paper!  TP is yet another surprising item that is super bad for you, and here we are coming in very close contact with it, all day, every day.  This toilet paper is free of all the nasty stuff, and works great! 

Piggybacking off of the TP subject, you need a bidet.  Just trust me on this one.  It’s such an odd concept until you’re accustomed to it, and then you’ll hate leaving your house and having to live without it! 

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Moving right along onto less odd topics!

I'm so excited for spring, and have been since before Christmas!  Over the past 4 years, I've come full circle from being completely over trying to have huge gardens (huge for the size of our town lot, that is), keep chickens, can, etc, to being ready to till up the one garden plot that we had turned back to turf, and ready to hit the "order" button on a beautiful aluminum chicken tractor!  A huge part of that reason is definitely due to the fact that our kiddos are now at a very different stage and are not screaming around the clock, nor am I enormously pregnant and trying to pick unnatural quantities of beans and can them on a hotplate, 6 jars at a time.  Not that I'd know anything about that....  

But also, with the way we've been slowly transitioning into a more natural lifestyle, eating whole foods, and watching what we are putting into and on our bodies, I am so ready to make the most of what we can produce and preserve from our very own gardens.  

I'll definitely share our garden plans, or at least the results thereof here on the blog!  I still need to finalize my plans for the vegetable side of things, but I do know I want to utilize an empty space along one side of our house to grow some gorgeous "pickable" flowers (zinnias, delphinium, small sunflowers), as well as a few select herbs!  I can't wait to enjoy the beautiful blooms all summer long, both inside the house and out.

On the sewing front, I have actually done a *ton* of sewing recently!  My hubby has been working some odd shifts, so after seeing him off at various hours of the night, I stay up and work on whatever task is at hand, which for a couple of months was sewing!  It felt absolutely amazing to dig in and get a number of projects completed, including all of the winter dresses and nightgowns I had planned for our daughter, two pairs of overalls for our little boy, conquering the years-long mending pile, and even finishing my Mother’s Day dress!  I’m all excited to keep going, but with a caveat due to some recent changes we made in our home.  But more on that in a moment   First, a glimpse of the afore mentioned sewing projects!  

This has been a UFO for…close to 3 years I think?  I have the same seersucker in purple, and it’s all ready to cut out (finally) to make a matching little frock for my girlie.  

Green “ovoyalls” for little man, and he likes them all so much, he asks to wear them every day!!! 💙

Flannel nighties for my girl, this one ended up being my fave.  Can’t beat the old Lanz of Salzburg style. 

Second nightie. 

Orange corduroy ‘40s dress.

Wool birthday overalls 

Flannel ‘30s dress 

And, there is one other flannel dress that I didn’t get a photo of, but it is quite soft and cute, just like its recipient!!  

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Lastly, the biggest change we’ve made of late is decluttering!  I already mentioned the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast earlier in this post, but Lisa had another interview recently with Dana K. White of A Slob Comes Clean.  Listening to that episode was so inspiring to me, and upon telling my hubby about it, we both got a fire lit under us to do some major decluttering.  This podcast episode really opened our eyes to just how much overconsumption we were “guilty” of, and just how much the excess *stuff* we have was weighing our lives down.  We’re just now two weeks in, but have been able to purge a TON of stuff, selling on Marketplace or Facebook groups, donating, and even just throwing certain things away.  Our home already looks and feels so much better, and we still have plenty to do!  It’s been such a wonderful mindset change, and I’m so thankful the Lord brought us to this point!  I would highly recommend listening to this episode  of Lisa’s podcast.

Well, this post ended up being even longer and more rambling than I intended!  If you made it to this point, I do appreciate it!!  I hope you’re having a lovely start to the year!  Do leave me a comment and let me know what you all have been up to! 

♥ Esther

• How To Make Your Own Down Bed Pillow •

A few years back, my husband had the idea to buy some bulk down so I could make some pillows, vests, and a comforter.  When I went to make the pillows, upon looking for tips and tricks for how to do so, I found there is virtually no information or tips about it online.  So I decided to write up a blog post about it for anyone else who might want to make their own as well! 

It only takes a short time to whip these up - I seem to recall getting all four pillows stuffed and sewn shut while my daughter was taking an afternoon nap.

You will need:

- Down proof ticking.  I purchased mine here on Etsy.  This is not the standard striped ticking that comes to mind when you think of pillow ticking, this is a thicker fabric that is specifically woven to keep all those feathers inside! This particular fabric is very nice, heavyweight but feels great and would even work well to make throw pillows.  

- Bulk down!  We purchased ours here on Amazon, in the 80/20 blend.  For one pillow, you will need 2 pounds of down. (See more about the weight later on in the tutorial)

- Thread, and a sewing machine

- A large bowl

- Scale

- Pins

- Lint roller (to get those pesky stray feathers)

To begin, cut your ticking into a long rectangle, 57.5” x 21” (for a standard size bed pillow).  

Fold the fabric in half, lengthwise, matching up the edges.

On the short end (where we will leave the opening), fold the edges of the fabric over to the outside 1/2" like this, and pin:

Sew the two long edges shut, using a 1/2" seam and a very short stitch length (I would recommend about half of your typical stitch length, as we don't want the feathers to escape!). 

Next, feed the pillowcase onto your ironing board, and first press the side seams flat.  

Then, press the opening raw edge over 1/2" to line up with those edges that you sewed!

Now, we are ready to fill the pillow!  For this step, I highly recommend setting up outdoors if possible, as the feathers do like to fly.  I set up a little table on our front porch (in town, yep!  All the neighbors already know I'm weird...) and stuffed them before bringing them in to sew shut.

First, tare your scale for the weight of the bowl + your pillowcase.

To begin filling the pillow, I stuck the pillowcase down into the box and tried to fill it as carefully as possible, because if you take a handful of feathers out in the air, it will make quite the mess.

Grab handfuls of the fluffy down, and begin stuffing away!  It doesn't take too long, but it definitely will take more feathers than you initially think to fill the pillow.

Once you think you have enough, throw it on the scale and check!  I used 2 pounds of down for our well-stuffed pillows, and I believe about 26 ozs for slightly less robust ones.

Once you have sufficiently filled the pillow, pin it shut carefully, making sure to line up those pressed edges.  

Sew across the entire opening, using the very small stitch length, and backstitching at the ends!  You may also wish to sew the entire seam a second time to reinforce it. 

It can be a bit of a wrestle to fit it under your machine, but it is very doable.

Once you've finished sewing, you may remove the pins, give it a once-over with the lint roller, and you're ready to go!  

You may experience a bit of feather loss over time - not that your pillow necessarily feels smaller, but you may just get an occasional poke in the neck from those pesky quills.  One thing I can recommend to alleviate that is a pillow protector like this one.  I have also just doubled up on pillow cases, and it seems to work quite well. 

We have been using our pillows for about a year and a half now, and love them as much as (or more than!) the very first day.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and found it to be helpful!  Let me know in the comments if you've ever made a down pillow before!

Have a great weekend, friends!!

♥ Esther

• Coming Back To The Blog •

 Greetings, after such a long time!!  If you’re still around and reading this, let me start off with saying “thank you!”  It’s been a long time, between the whirlwind of marriage, having kids, and running a home.  The shifts in the online community have greatly affected my dedication to this space as well, where it feels like blogging is a thing of the past, falling in the shadow of the constant blur that is social media.  But my husband and I are implementing some changes in our home around less screen time (to prevent the constant display of less-than-wholesome content in our kids’ faces), and with that I will be stepping away from Instagram very soon, and stepping back into more blogging again!

In September of 2022, I reopened my vintage Etsy shop, Northern Shore Vintage, with the original intention of selling handmade antique quilt coats, antique quilts, and vintage clothing.  That soon morphed into selling a broader range of antique home decor and the like, and I was excited and motivated to build my Instagram following and have a successful Instagram business and Etsy shop.  All of that was, and still is, a great thing to aspire to, however the realities of raising children (of any age, but especially these first years) make it impossible to devote the level of time necessary to grow my Instagram business in a successful manner.  I love the idea of having my little business, but I also love my children, my husband, and my home, and I cannot and will not sacrifice being present with and invested in them to grow a business, which falls outside of my true calling - that of a wife and mama.  

All that being said, I have no plans to stop selling antiques, making quilt coats, vests, etc, but by stepping away from Instagram, it will remove that constant pressure of "I really should be making a reel right now," or knowing in the back of my mind that it’s been sooo many days since I last posted.  I don’t need or want that type of pressure in my life!  I’ll continue to source lovely antique finds that make me happy, list them on Etsy where I find the time or inclination, and thereby serve both my little hobby that I love, as well as my family that I’m so beyond blessed to have!!  

Another huge reason I found to step away from Instagram entirely, is the way that it breeds constant comparison, dissatisfaction, and “lust” (as in the desire of products/items/neat things that you do not need, but now want because you’ve seen them!).  And can we talk about the waste of time and productivity?  I know it will be a huge adjustment, but I’m so ready to make this move and be more present with my babies, have more time for the needed housework, as well as sewing and crafting - the hobbies that I’ve always loved.  

So!  If you’ve made it through all of that, once again I am thankful!!  :)  I hope each one of you is well, and that the new year has you excited for the ways in which you can better yourself, your home, and your environment!  New Years’ resolutions are not my jam, but I am excited to embrace life changes that will positively impact our family for years to come.

Another change we’ve recently implemented was to move to low-tox products in our home.  We struggled with sickness for months this fall and early winter, and between that and hormonal issues ever since having our second, I was at my wits' end to find a solution.  I always resisted the idea of “going low-tox” in the past; I enjoy a natural remedy, I enjoy gardening a bit, but in my heart I really just want to microwave some mac ‘n’ cheese, light a candle, and eat Oreos.  I have no desire to be a homesteader, a low-tox mama, or any of those stereotypes!!  That being said, once I started to really look into some specific products (I had recently started using a wax burner with scented wax melts every single day, something I’d never done before, and was having new and relentless symptoms), I couldn’t ignore the facts about how truly, literally toxic these products are!  So we’ve switched the majority of our products in our home to better choices, and without much more cost than the previous toxic products that we were accustomed to using. 

I’m still using bleach when washing my towels, and as needed for other things around the house (quite infrequent for the latter application), toilet cleaner, and ammonia for the occasional super-deep cleaning of the bathroom and washing floors.  But we’ve switched out shampoos, soaps, lotions, hair products, cleaners, and laundry products and with good results! 

If anyone is interested, here are the low-tox items we’ve started using.  Click the photo to view each item on Amazon.  (These are affiliate links, and I receive a very small compensation if a purchase is made using them)

Laundry soap:                            

Dish soap:

Shampoo/body wash (for the whole family!): 

Deodorant:

Toothpaste (adults):

Toothpaste (training):

Hair pomade (guys):

Lip balm:

Baby lotion:

Clove, lemon, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary essential oils to make this DIY Thieves Cleaner

This Castile soap concentrate to make foaming hand soap (simply dilute approximately 6 parts water to 1 part Castile soap in a foaming soap dispenser such as these)

I’m still on the hunt for low-tox makeup (something that provides decent coverage without clogging pores or breaking the bank!), and a few other products like face cream and hairspray.  But we have already seen huge improvements in our health and the look/feel of our skin, just since making the switch a short time ago.  So if you’re on the fence about whether to switch or not, I would highly encourage you to give it a try!  Start small, and start with products that have the biggest impact (such as lotion, dish soap, laundry products that are on your skin or breathed in frequently).  

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions, and let me know also what you’ve been up to!  I’ve missed you all, and look forward to coming back to this platform and the simple, slow, much more enjoyable environment that it provides!  

Have a blessed week!  ❤️ 

Esther